Hänninen backs decision to cancel stage

Sata Rallye Açores leader Juho Hänninen says the event organisers were right to cancel the ninth stage of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge round.

The stage was axed due to delays recovering several stranded cars that had hit trouble on the first pass this morning.

“It would have been more enjoyable to do the stage in no fog but safety is always the important issue and there would be problems,” said the ŠKODA Motorsport pilot, whose lead over Andreas Mikkelsen is 10.1s.

Mikkelsen said: “It was a shame they cancelled the stage because I was really going to try to catch him in there.”